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WILLIAM THORNTON AND 
NEGRO COLONIZATION 



BY 
GAILLARD HUNT 



Ilmtritan flnliquarian ^0ti«tij 



WILLIAM THORNTON AND 
NEGRO COLONIZATION 



BY 
GAILLARD HUNT 



Reprinted fbom the Proceedings of the American Antiquabiah Socibtt 
FOR April 1920 



WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A. 

PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY 

1921 









The Davis Press 
WoRCESTEB, Massachusetts 

Gift 
Mrs. Gaillard Hunt 
April 28, 1933 



WILLIAM THORNTON AND NEGRO 
COLONIZATION 



BY GAILLARD HUNT 



I 



N the Caribbean Sea, stretching eastward from 
Porto Rico, lies a group of about one hundred small 
islands, some mere rocks in the sea furnishing no 
sustenance for human beings, and some of larger size 
where a few planters raise sugar and cotton. These 
are the Virgin Islands discovered by Christopher 
Columbus on his second voyage in 1494, and named by 
him in honor of the Eleven Thousand Virgin 
Martyrs of St. Ursula; but this pious name did 
not prevent them from being, in the middle of the 
seventeenth century, the favorite resort of those 
picturesque desperadoes, the pirates of the Spanish 
Main, who found in their numerous inlets and harbors 
which were dangerous to pursuing navigators a safe 
refuge from the consequences of their crimes. The 
largest of the islands is Tortola, the Turtle Dove, a 
beautiful little domain, twenty-four miles long and 
five miles wide, with rich valleys and a range of high 
hills. Travellers seldom go to Tortola now, planting 
is unprofitable, the island is almost deserted; but in 
the eighteenth century it flourished, and a few planters 
and numerous black slaves lived there prosperously 
and contentedly. In 1756 the whole population of the 
island was 460 white persons and 3,864 negro slaves.^ 
Chief among the planters was an English Quaker 



iThe Development of the West Indies, by Frank Wealey Pitman, Ph. D., Yale Histori- 
cal Publications, 1917, p. 383. 



named Thornton and over his household presided his 
young wife, Dorcas Downing Zeagurs.^ 

On May 27, 1761, their son William was born. I 
have fixed the year approximately by circumstantial 
evidence; for he never disclosed it and there are no 
vital statistics for Tortola. When William Thornton 
was two years old his father died, and when he was 
five he was sent to his father's relatives, his grand- 
father and aunts, in Lancashire, England, to be 
educated. In 1777, when he was sixteen, he was 
apprenticed to a Doctor Fell of Ulverstone, England, 
to learn the business of a doctor, who was also then an 
apothecary, a dentist and a phlebotomist. Thornton 
attended Doctor Fell's shop, learned to make boluses 
and plasters, how to bleed people and how to pull 
their teeth out, and before he left Doctor Fell he had 
earned several sixpences and shillings with his lancet 
and forceps. After three years with Doctor Fell he 
went to Edinburgh to take the finishing course in 
medicine for which the University at that city was 
famous. He entered in 1781 and took his degree in 
1784. After a brief return to Tortola he went to 
Paris to continue his scientific studies and there he 
learned a great deal and made many pleasant 
acquaintances. By this time he had formed the 
definite idea that he was to be a leader in the world, 
but to obtain this leadership a large private fortune 
was needed and he determined to acquire it by 
marriage. In 1787 he came to America and made a 
considerable stay in Philadelphia and Wilmington. 
It was at this time that he addressed himself to 
Governor John Dickinson, of Delaware, and asked 
the hand of the Governor's daughter in marriage. 
The Governor was rich and had married an heiress 
himself, but he rejected Thornton's overtures because 
he thought his daughter was too young to marry, she 
being only sixteen years old. The lover could not 

'Thornton Papers, Library of Congrees MSS. Unless otherwise stated these papers 
are the authority for this paper. 



wait for her to grow older, and went back to Tortola 
in April, 1788. He intended to settle in America, 
however, and had been naturalized as a citizen of 
Delaware on January 7, 1788. When he reached the 
West Indies he met another heiress, whose initials 
only have been preserved, Miss R. H., and became 
engaged to her. Shortly before the day set for their 
marriage she ran off with another man. This mortify- 
ing circumstance threw Thornton into a fever and he 
was very ill. As soon as he had recovered sufficiently 
to travel, he came back to America to mend his health 
and heart. Neither was permanently broken, for he 
was soon in good physical condition, and in October, 
1790, within a year from the time he was jilted in the 
West Indies, he was married in Philadelphia to Anna 
Maria Brodeau. Two failures to secure heiresses had 
somewhat diminished his matrimonial ambitions, but 
his wife was not portionless. Her mother was a 
French woman, a wi^ow of high social position in 
Philadelphia, clever and influential, and Thornton's 
position in Philadelphia, and afterwards in Washing- 
ton, was strengthened by her support. Although her 
daughter was hardly older than Miss Dickinson was 
when the Governor rejected Thornton, Mrs. Brodeau 
was not afraid to entrust her happiness to Thornton's 
care. In fact, she was pleased with the match, for 
she saw that her son-in-law was a remarkable man, 
and she yielded, as others did, to his charm of manner 
and conversation, his sprightliness and enthusiasm 
which made him more like a Frenchman than an 
Englishman. 

At the time of his marriage he was thirty years old, 
of medium height, with regular features, brown hair 
and English complexion, an aquiline nose, active in 
body and abnormally active in mind. There was 
hardly a man in America who had received a scientific 
education equal to his, for the Americans who studied 
abroad usually went through a classical course only, 
but Thornton, having received a rudimentary classical 



6 

education, had studied medicine and chemistry and 
then botany and other branches of natural science. 
The young man was no adventurer, nor was he 
penniless, for the plantation yielded him an income 
which was, however, not always certain. By nature 
he was a fearless idealist and believed that the New 
World would welcome plans and projects which in 
Europe would go unheeded. 

In 1793 the American Philosophical Society awarded 
him the Magellanic gold medal for his essay entitled 
"Cadmus; or a Treatise on the Elements of Written 
Language, Illustrated by a Philosophical division of 
Speech, the power of each character, thereby mutually 
fixing the orthography and orthoepy, with an Essay 
on the mode of teaching the surd or deaf, and conse- 
quently dumb, to speak. " It was a treatise upon the 
elements of written language and the application of a 
new system of letters and spelling to the teaching of the 
deaf to speak. Much of the argument has become 
familiar to later generations in the literature concern- 
ing Volapuk, Esperanto, simplified spelling and visible 
speech.^ 

Before Thornton attracted attention in this field he 
had become the patron, friend and coadjutor of John 
Fitch.^ He made John Fitch's steamboat a success. 
Twenty years later he swore that Robert Fulton had 
stolen the plans of the boat. It was soon after his 
experiments with the steamboat began that he 
invented a steam cannon which drove twenty-four 
bullets successively in two minutes through a plank 
an inch thick, but this rapid-fire gun he considered to 
be more curious than useful. In 1792 his plans for 



'CADMUS, or a Treatise on the Elements of Written Language, Illustrated by a 
Philosophical Division of Speech, the Power of each character therby mutually fixing the 
Orthography and Orthoepy. Cur nescire, pudens prave, quam descire male? Hors 
Ars. Poet. V. 88. With an Essay on the Mode of Teaching the Surd or Deaf and Conse- 
quently Dumb to Speak. By William Thornton, M.D., Member of the Societies of Scots 
Antiquaries of Edinburg and Perth; the Medical Society and the Society of Natural Hist 
of Edin. the American Philosophical Society, &c., Philadelphia, Printed by R. Aitken & 
Son, No. 22, Market Street, M.DCC.XCIII. 

'William Thornton and John Fitch, by Gaillard Hunt, in The Nation, May 21, 1914. 



the new Capitol building at Washington were accepted. 
He had previously designed the Philadelphia Library- 
Building. Subsequently, he designed several other 
buildings including some beautiful private houses, a 
few of which are still standing. The history of his 
connection with the Capitol building has been written 
by Glenn Brown. A full account of William Thornton, 
the Architect, has yet to be written. He studied 
architecture for the first time when he drew the plans 
for the Capitol, but architecture was never more than 
a recreation with him. He gave up the practice of 
medicine before he left Philadelphia for Washington 
and never regularly resumed it. The fees were much 
smaller in this country than they were in the West 
Indies, but, apart from that, he felt an aversion for 
many branches of a general practitioner's duties, and 
in those days there were no specialists. He took an 
interest in agriculture and had a farm near Washing- 
ton, but he never followed farming as a profession. 
He was a prolific writer, a printer of pamphlets, a 
contributor to the newspapers, and letters flowed 
from his pen in endless numbers, but he never wrote a 
book and he could not be called an author. His 
writings cover a bewildering multitude of subjects — 
negro colonization and emancipation, a national 
university, landscape gardening, somnambulism,^ 
South American independence, the breeding of horses, 
city building, George Washington, to mention only a 
few. Of no circumstance in his life was he as proud 
as he was of Washington's friendship. The intimate 
association began in Philadelphia in 1792 and when 
Tobias Lear ceased to be Washington's private 
Secretary the following year Thornton aspired to 
succeed him. The President's reply to him saying he 
had chosen his wife's kinsman, Bartholomew Dan- 
dridge, was warm and friendly in tone. Washington 
appointed him a Commissioner of the new federal 

'See in Harper's Weekly for Oct. 1, 1910, "The Remarkable Case of William Kemble," 
based on one of Thornton's papers. 



8 

district in 1794, moved to the selection, doubtless, 
because he wished him to have oversight of the 
construction of the building he had designed, because 
he believed him to be a genius in planning generally, 
and because he had confidence in him and a personal 
liking for him. He and Commissioner Thornton 
tramped together over the ten miles square and he 
lent a willing ear to Thornton's projects, liking them 
none the less because many of them were Utopian. 
Thornton told him how a philosophical society must 
be founded; how there must be a national university 
on a novel plan which should include mechanical as 
well as classical and scientific education; how there 
must be an agricultural institution on a comprehensive 
scale — that government, art, science, learning, 
mechanics, husbandry, all must have their central 
point in the new city which this modern Cadmus 
hoped to build. 

Thornton fairly revelled in the intimacy with 
Washington. He wrote to his friends in England 
about it; he planned to become Washington's Boswell 
and to record his daily sayings and doings; but he 
appears to have abandoned the idea — at any rate he 
has left us no notes to indicate that he even started to 
carry it out. The friendly letters which Washington 
and the family at Mt. Vernon wrote him survive as 
conclusive proof that he did not exaggerate his 
position. At Washington's request he wrote out his 
ideas on the subject of the national university and 
they were printed in 1796 under the title ''Public 
Education." He designed the General's handsome 
house on North Capitol Street between B and C 
streets, and supervised the building, being often 
intrusted by Washington with large sums of money to 
pay for the work as it progressed. He helped 
Washington's nephew, Lewis, in planning his country 
house. Mrs. Washington appealed to him on occasion 
as a physician and often intrusted him with those 



9 

small household commissions which are a sure sign of 
intimacy. 

After Thornton had served as Commissioner of the 
District of Columbia for five years, the office was 
abolished and he became Superintendent of the 
Patent Office, then under the Department of State, 
serving from 1802 up to the time of his death in 1827. 
His activities as a citizen were numerous. He 
served as a justice of the peace; was an officer in 
the militia; was one of the founders of the Colum- 
bian Institution, the first society for mental improve- 
ment organized in Washington; he was one of the 
organizers of the Washington Assemblies in 1800, 
the first effort to give form to the society of the place; 
he painted amateur portraits; he wrote verses; he 
entertained a great deal. He became interested in 
South American politics and was a correspondent of 
several of the leaders in the struggle for SouthAmeri- 
can independence. In 1815 he printed a pamphlet 
entitled ''Outlines of a Constitution for United North 
and South Columbia, Addressed to the Citizens of 
North and South Columbia" — a fantastic plan for 
uniting the whole Western Hemisphere under one 
government with the capital on the Isthmus of 
Darien. He wanted to be a minister to one of the 
South American republics. 

He was a contentious man, and the habit grew on 
him as he grew older. He was a writer of long, 
explanatory, circumstantial letters, all true enough 
but doubtless wearisome to receive. He quarreled 
with his fellow Commissioners of the District, with 
Fulton over the steamboat, with Latrobe over the 
Capitol. He importuned Congress on many subjects, 
the Secretary of State over the Patent Office, the 
President on Appointments to office and public 
questions. He became a man with grievances and 
claims. I have read a great many of these letters and 
they seem convincing that he was right. Neverthe- 
less, I can imagine how sorry his correspondents were 



10 

to receive them, how reluctantly they read them, and 
how difficult they found it to answer them, knowing, 
as they did, that he would be sure to write more long 
letters in reply. 

He was an unconquerable man and he never grew 
old. When he died on March 28, 1828, at the age of 67, 
he was still planning, still contending, still hoping for 
that leadership and success which he had resolved 
should be his when he started out in life. 

I have said that Thornton wrote on negro coloniza- 
tion and emancipation, and his connection with this 
subject I shall now develop by several of his surviving 
papers. 

I must turn first to another West Indian, who like 
Thornton was born in the Virgin Islands, who was also 
a Quaker, a physician, an emancipationist and a 
scientist of varied accomplishments and great curiosity. 
John Coakley Lettsom had already made his mark in 
London when Thornton came upon the scene, being 
some seventeen years older than Thornton, and to him 
Thornton appealed for assistance in his plans for 
helping the negroes to be free and the free negroes to 
become useful members of society.^ For Thornton's 
benefit Lettsom obtained an account from Granville 
Sharp of his experiment at Sierra Leone. Granville 
Sharp was a philanthropist and pamphleteer, a 
sympathizer with the American Revolution, a friend 
of General Oglethorpe and a most effective friend of 
the negroes. It was he, in fact, who brought about 
the litigation in England which resulted in the British 
declaration that a slave became free as soon as he 
landed on British soil. Sharp's letter of October 13, 
1788, to Doctor Lettsom, told how Sierra Leone had 
been bought for a trifling sum from King Tom, a negro 
chief. The King not only sold his territory but his 
subjects as well. He was in the slave trade, and did, 
in fact, sell some of the free negro colonists when their 

•Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the late John Coakley Lettson, M.D., LL.D.. 
etc., by Thomas Joseph Pettigrew, F. L. S. London, 1817. 



11 

number became few and they could not resist him. 
To Sierra Leone, Sharp and several others, with the 
aid of the British Government, sent some four hundred 
wretched negroes early in 1787. They were the 
remnant of those American slaves who had been 
incorporated into the British Army and Navy during 
the American Revolution, besides some runaways who 
had found refuge in London. They started on the 
voyage much debilitated by long waiting on ship- 
board and by drunkenness from the rum which was 
served to them as a part of their rations. Only two 
hundred and seventy-six got to Sierra Leone. A few 
months later only one hundred and thirty of these 
were still in the Colony. 

Doctor Lettsom's friend, Henry Smeathman,^ a 
scientific explorer who had lived for several years on 
the West Coast of Africa, was the originator of the 
Sierra Leone experiment, and when Thornton heard 
in 1786 that Smeathman intended to visit Africa he 
wrote to Lettsom, Nov. 18, 1786, that he would like 
to go with him. He said that he wished to emancipate 
the slaves on the plantation in Tortola, but as only 
half of them, some seventy or eighty, belonged to him 
he would have to take his slaves away. Where could 
he send them? To their own country, naturally, but 
in that country some one must protect them from their 
relatives, the natives, and from their own helplessness. 
Thornton wished to be that protector. Before remov- 
ing his slaves from Tortola he intended to allot to 
them some land and require them to pay him for it 
gradually before they were emancipated. He hoped 
in this way to arouse in them habits of independence. 
He said that in Africa a commonwealth should be 
founded. He worked out his plan in detail. It 



'Smeathman wrote: Plan of Settlement to be made near Sierra Leone on the Graiu 
Coast of Africa, intended more particularly for the service and happy establishment of 
Blacks and People of Colour to be shipped as freemen under the Direction of the Commit- 
tee for Relieving the Black Poor, and under the Protection of the British Government. 
By Henry Smeathman, Esq., who has resided in that country nearly four years. London 
1786. 



12 

included, as he was then a Quaker, disarming the 
inhabitants and the making of inviolable treaties of 
peace with all the world. His activities extended to 
the free negroes in America. He told Lettsom, 
February 15, 1787, that he found many free negroes 
in Rhode Island who were desirous of going to the 
Guinea Coast and who approved of his project to 
transport them thither. He learned that there were a 
great many free blacks in Boston. The American 
blacks were anxious to know if Sierra Leone was a 
British colony or an independent settlement. If it 
was a colony they would not go, but if it was inde- 
pendent they would go and Thornton would go with 
them. They changed his plans by insisting upon the 
right to carry arms for their self-defense; otherwise 
they might be captured and reduced to slavery again. 
Thornton could get 2,000 to go with him. The blacks 
in Newport were organized as the ''Union Society", 
and more than seventy had signed as ready to join 
him. Going to Boston he grew warmer in his plans. 
May 20, 1787, he wrote that hundreds were ready to 
go from that place. He discussed his project with 
Samuel Adams, who approved of it. Thornton wished 
to dedicate himself to ''this grand affair," as he called 
it. Returning to Philadelphia in July, 1788, he was 
still full of his black commonwealth, but the expedition 
to Sierra Leone having sailed, he would wait to hear 
how it turned out. If it failed he would organize 
another expedition. If it succeeded his American 
blacks would join the new settlers. They would go 
in prodigious numbers if the settlement was free and 
not a colony. The free blacks had petitioned the 
legislature of Massachusetts for vessels and equipment 
to take them to Africa. If it was necessary, Thornton 
would fit out transports himself for that purpose. In 
1789 began his correspondence on the subject with 
the French emancipation society, "Les Amis des 
Noirs," but he appears to have derived only moral 
encouragement from that source. He thought he 



13 

could do more good in Africa than he could anywhere 
else on the globe, but he must have the ''superintend- 
ence of the undertaking." (To Lettsom Nov. 13, 
1789.) He was then a bachelor, and had no ties to 
deter him from personal risk. On June 15, 1790, he 
was still ardent for his plan. After that we hear no 
more of his desire to go to Africa. He was married in 
October of that year. His attention was now 
engrossed by his explorations in the elements of 
written language. He was writing a dictionary of the 
English language, giving all the^ roots of words and 
their true spelling, which had never been properly 
given. By 1794 he was telling Lettsom about the 
new capital, which he thought would be "one of the 
most elegant cities in the world. " (January 8, 1795.) 
When Thornton was deep in his colonization plans 
he laid them before Samuel Adams, as we have seen, 
and he approved of them, and he found encouragement 
and assistance from James Madison who wrote out 
for him certain considerations which he incorporated 
in his letter to the President of the ''Societe des Amis 
des Noirs. " 

J. DOTY TO WILLIAM THORNTON 

[Tortola] [1786] 
Dear Sir 

I informed you I would transmit to you early intelligence of 
the determination of the members of the House of Assembly 
on your address to them, and the letter to me which accom- 
panied it. I yesterday submitted both to them, and according 
to the usual form, the further consideration of the Subject 
matter was ordered for the next meeting. In the mean-time 
it may not be improper to state to you, the Ideas which this 
Subject seems to have given rise to, in the minds of some of the 
members. It is not extraordinary that a plan, which has for 
its object, the establishing a Colony of free blacks, in a tropical 
climate, for the purpose of Cultivating the usual articles 
which are the produce of the West Indies, and promoting the 
Interests of Freedom among those people, should not be a very 
popular one in this Country. And some of the members of the 
Assembly seem to be of opinion that such an establishment 



14 

should it be carried into effect and be successful, will eventually 
be highly injurious to the Interests of the West India Islands, 
and therefore ought not to be countenanced by them. There 
are some other Gentlemen, who seem desirous of knowing, to 
whom the Colony intended to be established at Sierra Leone 
is to be made Subject; whether it is to be absolutely a depend- 
ency of Great Britain, or whether it is intended to be only 
placed under the protection of that power, and as to matters 
of Government, Commerce, &c to remain in a state of 
Independency. I must confess it appears to me, that a 
discussion of this subject at large, in this, or any other of the 
Islands, will be a fruitless, and futile, undertaking, as the 
establishing, and ultimate existence and success of such 
Colony, will depend upon causes, which these Islands can 
very little Influence or control, but were this not the case, I 
can conceive that the establishment of a Colony of free 
people of colour in Africa, may not only, not be injurious to the 
Interests of the West India Islands, but may even be rendered 
beneficial to them, for if to the free Blacks who it is intended 
shall be removed from North America to Africa, the plan is so 
extended as that the free people of colour in the Islands may 
be added, the community without an Act of injustice might be 
disencumbered of a class of people, who it is universally 
acknowledged are highly injurious to its Interests. These 
people are, in the Islands, in a situation more ineligible than 
they are on the Continent of North America, and probably 
would most willingly emigrate to another Country whose policy 
would not make it necessary to restrict them, in the rights of 
Citizenship. In the Islands they can scarcely be said legally 
to possess any visible permanent property, in some of them 
they are not allowed to possess the smallest quantity of Land 
in fee, nor beyond a very small number of Slaves, and in others 
where they are permitted by Law to hold a small quantity of 
Land in fee, they are prohibited from planting any, but certain 
Articles of cultivation. In this Island, their legal right to 
hold property within it, is a more liberal one than in most 
others, but even here, they cannot possess more than eight 
Acres of Land, nor more than fifteen Slaves. In one of the 
Windward Islands of this government it is at present or was 
lately in contemplation, to pass a Law, prohibiting any free 
person of Colour, from keeping a Huckstering shop, and from 
retailing Rum and other spirituous liquors, in any of the Towns 
in the Island, and as this business has hitherto constituted a 
principal object of employment with these people, should 
such a Law pass the Legislature, many of them will be deprived 
of the means of subsistence, at least until they have adopted 
some other object of employment. They are not eligible to 



15 

the holding any pubUck office of trust, or profit, in many of 
the Islands, nor have they a Vote in the election of any 
publick officer, and in some of the Islands (particularly in the 
foreign) they are prohibited from following any but certain 
Trades and employments. In the French Islands their 
situation is much worse than in the English, if the late revolu- 
tion in the government, has not operated to their advantage, 
and in the Danish & Dutch, they are but little removed from 
mere Slaves. 

Without reasoning as to the Justice of the distinction which 
is universally made between the white Inhabitants and the 
free people of colour, and the very great distance at which tha 
Law has placed the one from the other, it is sufficient that the 
policy of the West Indies, will never suffer these poor people 
to emerge from their present humble state, or to possess the 
equal rights of free Citizenship. To these causes, and their 
consequent poverty it is to be attributed that in general in the 
Islands, they are an Idle, profligate Race, and very Injurious 
to the Interests of the rest of the Community of which they are 
Members, and they probably will ever remain so, until they 
are placed in a situation, where they can enjoy the rights and 
immunities of free citizens. Where the right of possessing 
property to any extent, may operate as a spur to the acquiring 
it by an exertion of honest industry, and where, finding a fair 
reputation will be an essential prerequisite in the acquirement 
of office, and the good opinion of the Community, it will be 
their Interest to be careful of their moral conduct, and to 
preserve a decent appearance. 

The House of Assembly stands adjourned to tuesday next, 
on which day, or at any subsequent meeting, I shall be happy 
in communicating to the members, any further information 
on this Subject, which you shall think proper and necessary to 
be submitted to their consideration. 

I am 

Sir 
Friday Morning with great Respect 

Your most obedient Servant 
J Doty 
Doctor Thornton 



General Outlines of a Settlement on the Coast of Africa 
particularly that part under the Appellation of the Tooth- 
Ivory Coast. In the Language of the Blacks Quaqua. — [by 
Thornton]. 



16 

This part of the Coast is chosen because it enjoys as good 
Air as any of the Windward Coast, is not so subject to pesti- 
lential Fevers as the Grain Coast, because it does not contain 
large Rivers/ 

It does not abound so much with Minerals as the Gold 
Coast, therefore the Water will probably be better. It is 
equally luxuriant with any part, for Nature providing always 
with a Bountiful Hand has placed there the largest Animals 
with which we are Acquainted, (the Elephant), and the Sugar 
Cane grows there, naturally, in the most rich manner as Food 
for them. The Natives are much more numerous than on any 
other place on the Windward Coast, for they have generally 
been more peaceable, and have not yet got into the refined 
Species of Traffic i. e. for Men, 

The European powers have no Forts there, & cannot on that 
Account be jealous of a Settlement that promises not to inter- 
fere with their immediate Views. They could be supplied 
with Grain on one side, and Gold Dust for a medium in Traffic 
on the other. 

1. The Country must be visited, and Lands purchased of 
the Natives, making a Settlement in a peaceable manner. 

2. The Courts of England, France, & the States of America 
to be visited that a Treaty of Commerce with them & the 
Africans may be established. This Treaty not to exclude 
them from a free Trade with any other power, or with the 
whole World: And that any Vessel which may be built in 
Africa or owned there, shall have free admittance into the 
ports which receive their Commodities. If any power shall 
encroach upon the Liberties of the Settlement the most formal 
& fixed Resolution shall be taken never more to trade with that 
power till Restitution be made, and the other powers in 
treaty will doubtless protect from Insults their commercial 
Allies. The Americans having no Settlement in the torrid 
Zone would be much benefitted by such a Treaty. No power 
would ever be jealous, as this Settlement would be one founded 
in perfect peace, and therefore incapable of assuming or dic- 
tating to any other. The Articles of Commerce would be, to 
Europe, Cotton, Indigo, Gold Dust, Ivory, Gums, Dying 
Wood, Drugs & Spices; to America the same with the addition 
of Sugar & its products; Cocoa, Coffee &c. as they have no 
Colonies that would interfere with such productions, and as 
their chief dependence is on the Agriculture of their own 
Country, might be supplied with some Manufactures of Africa. 



'There are instances where the Rivers on the Grain Goast have risen during the Rainy 
Season 150 feet perpendicular from the Bed and when the Sun dries them up the Stench is 
intolerable. — Bennett. [Note in the MS]. 



17 

3. Blacks who are now free in America & Europe, or who 
may be made free in the West Indies hereafter, to be taken to 
the New Settlement carrying with them such Utensils as will 
be requisite to cultivate the Lands, and also to form the 
necessaries of Life. The West India Negroes will be well 
acquainted with the culture of Sugar, Cotton, Indigo, Cocoa, 
Ginger, Coffee, Rice, Corn, (Indian & Guinea) and raising 
such live Stock as is peculiarly adapted to the torrid Zone. 
The Negroes of the Northern Countries, who have been 
amongst Christians (a sect which the poor West India Negroes 
know little of, except by Name) would be easily induced to 
live a regular Life, and by their Example the rest, as well as the 
Natives, might become a sober religious People. The 
northern Negroes too, by the Example of Industry which they 
have been accustomed to behold in the lower Classes of the 
White Inhabitants of those Countries would easily, by 
introducing their acquired Habits & Customs, bring to 
Industrious Lives the ignorant & slothful of the warm Country 
of Africa. 

4 . The Lands already purchased from the Natives might be 
divided into portions or Estates according to the number of 
their Family. These might be taxed in a very light degree, 
for the support of — 

5. Schools & religious Houses, which are to be raised by the 
pubhc Stock. 

6. Such a Trade might be opened with the Africans that 
into this Settlement great Riches would be drained from the 
other parts, and the European Powers, particularly Great 
Britain & France and also the States of America, would find 
their Advantage in opening an extensive Commerce with it. 

7. A Code of Laws to be framed for the mutual good of 
each Member of the Community which Code must be signed 
by every Individual, and executed by the Sentence of a 
Majority of Judges, a Jury, or single Judge, according to the 
nature of the Crime and Circumstances. 

8. That such valuable Vegetable productions, as do not 
naturally grow in that part of Africa, be imported to the most 
proper nurseries appointed for the general Good of the Com- 
munity, and their culture could then be extended with the 
demand. 

9th To buy the Slaves that are brought from different parts 
and more fully to answer the purpose particular Ships may be 
stationed upon the Coast to receive them, and prevent their 
being offered to trading Vessels, and to free every person thus 
purchased, making him a member of the Community and 
giving equal privileges with the rest. If he have a Wife, or 
she a Husband, or they have Children or Friends in the 



18 

Country whence they were brought, by having permission to 
return and invite such Friends or any other persons to this 
Settlement of Peace, and paying their own Ransom by working 
or by Commerce, with Interest, the Community would increase 
rapidly, and as any province is rich only by the number of its 
Inhabitants such a Settlement would doubtless soon acquire 
an immense property. By this mode Thousands would 
annually be rescued from the most oppressive slavery, or 
Death, would be adopted into a Family of Peace on Earth, 
and taught Doctrines of Him, the King of Kings who has 
promised peace to his followers, in Heaven. The price which 
each would give for his Freedom would so much exceed any 
Sum that could be offered with Advantage by the Slave 
Traders, that in a httle time the Traffic would cease. What 
heavenly pleasure must dilate every Breast that has been 
instrumental in delivering from oppression the poor defenceless 
Captive, and restoring tranquillity to his Family. The 
power that created you as Instruments would never leave you ! 
What happiness awaits him who calls a Soul from Bondage 
under the promise of the most high, but my Friends what 
infinity of happiness shall be theirs who deliver from bondage 
& call unto Christ so many Thousand Souls! 

W. T. 

To the Black Inhabitants of Pennsylvania, assembled at one 
of their stated Meetings in Philadelphia. [Draft by Thornton] . 

It is in Contemplation by the English to make a free Settle- 
ment of Blacks on the Coast of Africa, which they have already 
begun, and have purchased a Tract of Land twenty Miles 
square at Sierra Leone for the intended Settlers.^ They are 
desirous of knowing if any of the Blacks of this Country be 
willing to return to that Region which their Fathers originally 
possessed, and finding many in Boston, Providence and Rhode 
Island very desirous of embarking for Africa, wish also to be 
informed if any of the Blacks in Pennsylvania are inclined to 
settle there. They would on landing be entitled to Estates, 
or certain Tracts of Land, and possess them for ever. 

The Place intended for this Settlement is at the mouth of 
the River of Sierra Leone, which is navigable back 240 Miles. 
It is situated in about 10 Degrees East Long: of Tenerif, and 
8 Deg: North Lat: Sir George Young of the British Navy 
who visited this Place gives the following Account of it. "St. 
George's Bay, in which the first Township is formed, is, 

»See Substance of the Report delivered by the Court of Directora of the Sierra Leone 
Company to the General Court of Propietors on Thursday the 27th March, 1794. Lon- 
don. 1794. 



19 

without exception, as fine a Harbour as any in the World; 
that the Mountains abound with Brooks of fresh Water; and 
are covered with the most noble Forests of all kinds of Timber, 
and with perpetual verduer; that when he ascended those 
Mountains, and looked about him he had never been so agree- 
ably struck before with beautiful Landscapes of Wood and 
Water; and that he found the Air so cool upon the Mountam 
that he could have borne his great Coat with pleasure. " 

The Blacks who form this Settlement should be a free and 
independent People, governed by their own Laws, and by 
Officers of their own election. Their Ports would be open to 
trade with the whole World, whereby they would have the 
Advantage of procuring every thing at the cheapest Rate, 
which would not be the Case were the Settlement monopolized 
as a dependent Colony, by any power either of Europe or 
America; but it is imagined the Slave Trade will be soon 
abolished, and that the Europeans and Americans will 
co-operate in the establishment of this laudable Undertaking. 
It is requested that those who may be disposed to embark 
for Africa will sign their Names, Ages, Trades and Families, 
&c., in the following, or a similar manner. 

Names Ages Trades Families 

The immediate Exports from Africa to Europe would be 
Gold Dust, Ivory, Cotton, Dying Woods, Gums, Drugs, 
Spices, Fruits and Preserves, Wood for Cabinets, &c. Oil of 
Palms &c. Indigo, Tobacco, Rice and Wax; to America the 
same, except the four last Articles, but with the Addition of 
Cocoa, Coffee, Sugar & its products &c, as the Americans have 
no Colonies with which such productions would interfere. 

WILLIAM THORNTON TO ETIENNECLAVIERE [1788] 

Mons.^ [Etienne] Claviere 

President de la Societe des Amis des Noirs 

Respected Friend 

Thy Letter with which I was lately honored is truly inter- 
esting & I perused it with must satisfaction, and think myself 
highly obhgated for this favour: I am happy that your Nation 
while engaged in a noble struggle for her own Privileges was not 
inattentive to the rights and happiness of the most oppressed 
of the human Race. While the Voice of Liberty was heard 
in every Street, and acclamations of Joy rent the Heavens, 
you listened to the voice of humanity, in the midst of gladness, 
the cry of the afflicted in a distant Land pierced each Heart of 
Benevolence. The Sum of your Happiness is not yet complete 



20 

for Tears of Sorrow continue to flow from the Eyes of Slaves, 
and the God of Man cannot delight in the freedom of one who 
binds another to administer to his pleasures. Let that 
nobleness of Character which has distinguished your People 
rouse you to assert for the Africans those privileges that are 
claimed so loudly by the French! then will their solemn 
appeals to Heaven and to Earth for the Rights of Man be 
marked with consistency, requiring that all Men are equally 
entitled by Nature to the same Favours! Thus shall each 
name that dignifies your Society do honor to human Nature, 
and when the Trumpet of Fame has done sounding the names 
of Heroes, your Names will be heard with secret Joy in the 
most remote Ages, and Time will hand them over to Eternity. 

I am happy that you approve of the Men with whom I 
propose to form a Settlement in Africa, though you think it 
will be necessary to form a concert of opinions and of actions 
between the different powers of Europe in favour of the plan 
previous to the attempt to form the Establishment: if however 
we consider that even with all the disadvantages of inexper- 
ienced Superintendents, appointed over a lawless Banditti and 
not very satisfactorily equipped, the English made an Essay, 
and as I have lately been informed not unsuccessfully, we 
might, with reason, hope that with such Men as I had the 
honor of proposing to you, properly provided with Necessaries 
& Arms, a free Settlement might be established upon the most 
solid Basis; for it does not appear that either the continuance 
of Slavery in other places, or even the Slave Trade affected the 
Settlers at Sierra Leone materially and, as the Traders seek 
only to take the Men, not the Country, they would have no 
Inducements to attack the free Blacks who were trained to 
Arms, and who were determined to sell their liberty only with 
their loss of Life. The Blacks of the Eastern States of North 
America still continue anxious to embark for Africa. They 
even addressed the Legislature of Massachusetts, and received 
an Answer truly worthy of that noble-spirited People, signify- 
ing that they were willing to grant the prayer of their Petition, 
in furnishing Ships with Stores, Implements of Labour, and 
Necessaries for the Coast of Africa, as soon as a proper place 
could be secured to them, either by Grants made by the 
African Princes, or in Consequence of Negotiations with any 
of the European Powers. 

I am incapable of expressing my admiration of your spirited 
and excellent address to the Bailliages or Districts entitled to 
send Delegates to the states Gen': It speaks the Language 
of Magnanimity, but though its justice may stare every slave 
dealer in the Face, and each sleeping Conscience be awaked to 
its Sense of Guilt, it withdraws behind the impenetrable Veil 



21 

of Interest, and the Mind is afraid to give way to conviction. 
A total and immediate abolition of Slavery may indeed be 
pregnant with some Danger to Society, but there can be no 
inconvenience in a gradual Emancipation to commence as 
soon as general Safety will permit it. You expect the abolition 
of the Trade: I sincerely hope that the Voice of a few Slave 
Traders, the most despicable of human Beings will not be 
suffered to dictate the most unchristian of practices to your 
enlightened Nation so justly famed for humanity and 
generosity : But whether or no you succeed in this praiseworthy 
attempt to abolish a traffic in the human Species let me urge 
the immediate consideration of the plan for forming a Settle- 
ment in Africa. The English will no doubt co-operate with 
you, and the Americans are willing. What can be urged against 
it that will not shrink before Resolution? If the Colonies 
preserve their unjust Titles to hold Slaves, how will they 
interfere with Africa? If the Slave Trade be still permitted 
even on every part of the Coast, what Madman would run 
headlong into danger to take them, knowing the dispositions 
of regularly disciplined Men in Arms especially if the terror of 
retaliation in Slavery were threatened by the Victors on both 
sides? If you be afraid that the surrounding Kings might be 
instigated by the Traders to destroy and captivate the Settlers, 
Laws might without difficulty be enacted to prevent under 
pain of Death any Traders from making Slaves within a few 
Degrees North and South of the Settlement — Prudence is to be 
admired, but no difficulties ought to overcome the Minds of 
Men engaged in the Cause of Virtue. Liberty is now alive: 
Let her not die till she visit another Quarter of the Earth — You 
are not immortal, and know not who shall succeed you. The 
Sun shineth today — to-morrow may never come. — No politi- 
cal objection can be urged against the Plan. The Manufac- 
turing Nations of Europe, particularly France and England, 
will be benefitted by procuring raw materials, at a cheaper 
rate, exchanging for them manufactured articles. America 
also will find great advantages in the Productions of Africa. 
The immediate Exports from Africa to Europe would be gold 
Dust, Ivory, Cotton, Dying Woods, Gums, Drugs, Spices, 
Fruits and Preserves, Wood for Cabinets &c. Oil of Palms &c. 
Indigo, Tobacco, Rice & Wax; to America the same, except 
the four last Articles, but with the addition of Sugar and its 
products, Cocoa, Coffee, &c. as they have no Colonies with 
which such productions would interfere. 

The Planters in the West Indies particularly the Sugar 
Planters cannot for many Years be affected by the exportation 
of any tropical Productions from Africa to Europe for the 
expense of Sugar Works would be too great for a new Settle- 



22 

ment, and were Sugar after that as cheap in Africa as in the 
East Indies it would bear so heavy a Duty that the Revenue 
of either France or England would be much increased by its 
Importation ; however if these nations should regard more the 
Interest of the West India Planters than the increase of their 
Revenues though at the expense of the Subjects resident in 
either Kingdom, they might lay such high Duties on the 
African Sugar as to be prohibitory, or at least equivalent to a 
Bounty on West India Sugars, till true policy should open the 
Eyes of European Politicians, and force them to urge the 
eternal abolition of Slavery. 

Reasons in favour of the immediate Settlement of Africa 
may be collected from the Sentiments of many in this Country. 
I will give you upon this Subject the Opinion of a Gentleman 
from one of the most respectable States in the Union — a 
Gentleman who does honor not to America only, but to 
human Nature — a Gentleman of the first Abilities, and whose 
Voice has ever been listened to with uncommon attention in 
the Councils of this Nation. His own Words are the best 
adapted to his Sentiments. [Insert the note by M^M.] 

"Without inquiring into the practicability or the most proper 
means of establishing a settlement of freed blacks on the Coast 
of Africa, it may be remarked as one motive to the benevolent 
experiment that if such an asylum was provided, it might 
prove a great encouragement to manumission in the Southern 
parts of the U. S. and even afford the best hope yet presented 
of putting an end to the slavery in which not less than 600,000 
unhappy negroes are now involved. 

''In all the Southern States of N. America, the laws permit 
masters, under certain precautions to manumit their slaves. 
But the continuance of such a permission in some of the States 
is rendered precarious by the ill effects suffered from freedmen 
who retain the vices and habits of slaves. The same considera- 
tion becomes an objection with many humane master ag^'. 
an exertion of their legal right of freeing their slaves. It is 
found in fact that neither the good of the Society, nor the 
happiness of the individuals restored to freedom is promoted 
by such a change in their condition. 

"In order to render this design eligible as well to the Society 
as to the Slaves, it would be necessary that a compleat incor- 
poration of the latter into the former should result from the act 
of manumission. This is rendered impossible by the prejudice 
of the whites, prejudices which proceeding principally from the 
difference of colour must be considered as permanent and 
insuperable. 

"Itonly remains then that some proper external receptacle 
be provided for the slaves who obtain their liberty. The 



23 

interior wilderness of America, and the Coast of Africa seem to 
present the most obvious alternative. The former is liable 
to great if not invincible objections. If the settlement were 
attempted at a considerable distance from the White Frontier, 
it would be destroyed by the Savages who have a peculiar 
antipathy to the blacks. If the attempt were made in the 
neighbourhood of the White Settlements, peace would not long 
be expected to remain between Societies, distinguished by 
such characteristic marks, and retaining the feelings inspired 
by their former relation of oppressors & oppressed. The result 
then is that an experiment for providing such an external 
establishment for the blacks as might induce the humanity of 
Masters, and by degrees both the humanity & policy of the 
Governments, to forward the abolition of slavery in America, 
ought to be pursued on the Coast of Africa or in some other 
foreign situation.^"" 

Such is his Opinion, and he further intimated that Slavery 
is not likely to be ever abolished in the Southern States of 
America till an Asylum be provided to which the manumitted 
Blacks may be sent. 

I have only to add my sincere Wishes that the honorable and 
benevolent Society over which thou presidest may concur with 
me in Sentiment respecting the propriety of adopting a plan of 
immediately commencing this Settlement, as it may beside 
other beneficial Effects have that of forwarding the abolition 
of not only the Slave Trade, but Slavery itself, teaching the 
European Nations that Slavery is not necessary for raising the 
productions of the torrid Zone, and teaching the Kings of 
Africa that their Kingdoms would be much richer by a Sale of 
their Commodities, than by a sale of their Inhabitants; that a 
King who sells his Subjects to enrich himself is (according to 
Montesquieu) like one who cuts down his Trees to pick off the 
Fruits. 

Nothing I hope will subdue your Minds! Great is your 
Cause, and may Heaven prosper your Society! You defend 
not imaginary Titles; you plead not the cause of an Individ- 
ual or a Family ; you support not the honorary dignities of a 
Kingdom ; but you disinterestedly raise your Voice in favour of 
many Nations, to preserve the Lives of many Millions, and in 
defence of the dearest rights of Man!! — 

I am with the greatest regard & esteem 

thy respectful Friend 

W:T. 



'"This insertion is in James Madison's handwriting. 



24 

Suggestion to Buy Porto Rico for Free Negroes. 
Draft, by Thornton [1802] 

About the year 88, at the time that the Government of 
England was engaged in setthng a free Colony at Sierra Leone 
the Americans in New England were desirous of sending all 
the free Blacks from that Country and offered Ships and every 
necessary for their support. The Blacks likewise were 
desirous of fixing in any Country where they might enjoy the 
rights & privileges of free-men, which they knew could not, 
consistently with the pohcy of the American Government, be 
accorded to them while so large a portion of the Black people 
remained in a State of Slavery. But without they had 
returned to Africa there was no place in which they could find 
the contemplated Asylum. If an Island had been in the 
possession of the Americans it would have served this valuable 
purpose. The English made a Settlement, which some 
French Privateers destroyed, and which humanity has to 
lament; but Virtue generally perseveres in the plans she has 
commenced, because she seldom commences them without 
considering attentively the end. They again sent settlers 
and it is thought they will amply repay the trouble and expense 
incurred. The same Causes that induced the Inhabitants of 
Boston to desire a place of settlement for the Blacks still 
exist, and we yet possess no place that can without various 
objections be dedicated to this end. But the mere settlement 
of the Blacks is perhaps not a suflacient inducement to the 
Government of America to engage in the establishment af a 
Colony, for it has been considered by many wise men as 
incurring a great expense, & subjecting any Nation to the Evils 
of foreign warfare. It is in part true, but only as it relates to 
certain European powers. With respect to us is it materially 
different, and though we are at present but in the infancy of 
our political Existence we are considered as so important in 
the Scale of Nations that were we even now to possess one or 
more Islands no Nation would presume to molest us, because 
our weight thrown into any Scale would outbalance the 
advantages of opposition to any of our National Measures; 
especially if there were not direct aggression on the rights & 
privileges of others; and though it might be extremely difficult 
for the Americans at any other time to obtain from the Court 
of Spain, or any other Nation an Island in the West Indies, 
especially of sufficient importance to be worthy of being 
possessed by one of the most extensive Nations in the world, 
yet at this time it would not be difficult to induce the Court of 
Spain to cede to us, what is not important to them, I mean the 



25 

Island of Porto Rico, for it is an annual expense to the Spanish 
Government of above 150,000 Doll'. Other motives might 
tend to induce them to grant us this Island which niay be 
enumerated. During a War, & the present particularly, the 
English may make prize of it, if they know the Americans wish 
it, may sell it to them, thereby depriving the Spamards not 
only of our Friendship but also of the Island & the Money we 
would give. It is not however the pohcy of England to grant 
the Americans an Island for the very Idea of giving us more 
strength in the American Archipelago is contrary to their 
national pohcy, not only on acct. of increasing our Seamen & 
consequently our naval power, but of being her competitors 
in the Sugar Market: but this pohcy would give way to the 
consideration of our obtaining from the Spaniards what was 
refused by them, and the National Jealousies between the two 
Courts would at this time work mutually to our Advantage. 
If the English had wished for Porto Rico, or any, or all, of the 
Spanish Islands, & other Settlements, they could at any tune 
have obtained them, as well as the french Settlements, but the 
Merchants of England who have lent Money to the Jamaica 
Planters, on their Estates, and the Planters who at great 
Expense have settled Sugar Estates, would oppose the Inten- 
tion of Government, if a Disposition were shown to extend 
their Colonies in such rich & fertile Islands, where a competi- 
tion would diminish the value of their settled possessions-and 
these rich merchants & planters who possess Boroughs in 
England and send by their extensive Patronage & Influence 
many Members to parhament do not express their wishes 
without being heard by the royal or Ministerial Ear. The 
French Islands have been repeatedly taken by the English and 
restored at the conclusion of the War, but if retained they 
would only have thrown the same quantity of Sugar into a 
different Channel without actually increasing it & there could 
be less objection to their being retained. If the American 
Government were opposed to purchasing the Island there is no 
doubt it would be ceded by our giving way in the Settlement 
of our Western Limits of Louisiana— for if a serious demand 
were to be made of the Rio Bravo or Rio del Norte as our 
Boundary, the Spaniards would be extremely adverse to a 
Dispute, & would be equally or more adverse to the relmqmsh- 
ment of a Territory that contains the richest Gold Mines in 
the world, which are situated in the Mountains of the Province 
of Texas, and several Rich ones in the neighborhood of S*^. Fe, 
besides some of the richest Silver Mines in the world-rather 
than permit such a cession of Territory there is no Doubt they 
would give the two Floridas & Porto Rico: the last however is 
the richest most beautiful most pleasant & healthy Island in 



26 

the same Latitude or between the Tropics in the world. It is 
hkewise very extensive in fertile Land, and contains more 
really rich Land proper for Canes & at the same time in a 
healthy situation than all the other possessions of this Govern- 
ment, if even what is mentioned above were ceded to us. 
Porto Rico contains Ports that are very extensive & very safe. 
It is more easy of access to our Ships than any Settlement we 
can form, as they can run thither & back with the Trade Wind, 
without beating up or tacking. If the Government possess that 
Island and make it a free Port it would give, independent of 
the produce, an astonishing revenue, and if a free Port, it 
would prevent the Jealousies that it might otherwise excite. 
If the Government were even adverse to this Island being 
considered as an object of exchange for such a portion of 
Louisiana as we may have a right to claun,and were also adverse 
to making a purchase of it, would any Objection arise to their 
acceptance of its Sovereignty, and permit a private Company 
to purchase the Island under the Sanction of the American 
Government, permitting every proprietor to hold his Land, 
and the Company taking possession only of the Crown Lands. 
Upon these Principles the English the Danes the Dutch & 
others have established Settlements which have been so pro- 
ductive as to give immense revenues. 

Draft of a Letter to a Newspaper. 
By Thornton [1816?] 
Mess". Editors 

The Cause of the Blacks has called forth the energetic power 
of England, & Cruisers have been sent to the Coast of Africa 
to put a Stop to that inhuman trafic, that has so long disgraced 
the most enlightened Nations of Europe. Such evidences 
have been produced that we find it is impossible to deny that 
many of our own People are engaged very deeply in this 
Business, furnishing under different Flags, the Spaniards of 
Cuba, with Slaves, who again wait for convenient opportuni- 
ties to send them to Missouri, & thus many thousands have 
been introduced in the very teeth of the Constitution; against 
law, against humanity, against every rule of right & every 
principle of Christianity, at the very time that we are ticklmg 
the vanity of each other, in orations on our freedom & declara- 
tion of common rights, & at the very time that we are 
immolating those poor wretches, who listening to our ^^^. of 
July flights, declare that "whatever is praiseworthy in Massa, 
is certainly praiseworthy in his Slave!" 

The Eye of Heaven is not blinded with Gold-dust, & the 
Day of reckoning is drawing near. Has a single Individual 



27 

dared to stand forth the Champion of the Oppressed: has he 
dared to recommend to Congress that a law should be passed 
to take to the Coast of Barbary every Man captured on board 
the Slave-trading Vessels who was engaged directly or in- 
directly in making Slaves or trading in them; & that such 
Individuals should be exchanged to ransom the innocent 
Captives of the Barbarians! — We are seeking for a President. 
Give me the Name of such a Champion of humanity, & I 
would write Night & Day to blazon forth his Virtues, and to 
make him the Ruler of the People. I would have none of your 
cold-blooded, tardy-thinking and calculating Characters. I 
would have the warm-hearted the noble-minded & generous 
Being who would dare to stem the torrent of opposition, and 
whose Virtues would rise against every attack, with a bolder 
crest: for in this land there is still great virtue, but it lies in a 
latent State. It requires to be brought forth, & to be fostered. 
It would, under the cherishing influence of a great master- 
spirit, be productive of effects that cannot be contemplated by 
the puny Soul! The North Americans would thus be distin- 
guished as a great, a generous, a virtuous, & magnanimous 
People. It would then be an honor to be called by such an 
Appellation. At present we look not for good and enlightened 
Men to fill our offices, but for men of money, of influence in 
Elections, of intrigue, to help forward our contemptible views 
of self-interest. Even parties are created, without knowing 
why they are to be enlisted on this or that side, and without 
seeing the causes that tend to ultimate results, of which they 
remain as ignorant as if the wood-and-wire worked here were 
to dance puppets in the moon! If an Envoy be sent to a 
foreign Country, it is not for what he is expected to do there; 
but to pay for electioneering services performed here, or to be 
performed. He may be old to superannuation, he may be 
deaf & dumb,-that is, incapable of understanding, or speaking 
intelligbly a word of the People to whom he is sent. — What 
impositions are these upon the Community ! Can no man be 
found who has honesty enough to call upon the actors in these 
base desertions of common Sense! No, we have no men, or 
few who dare write, & fewer still who dare publish what is 
written : for all the Papers that obtain extensive circultaion are 
in the pay of Government. The Laws are to be published in 
each of these papers, not for the benefit of the People, but to 
pay the vile hirelings who are as much bought & sold, as the 
hack-lawj^ers, that will plead in favor of any villain, in a cause, 
known to be iniquitous, for a fee. I speak to you Citizens, 
without your accustomed homage, & I call upon you to publish 
what I write if you have any of the spirit of '76. It was then 
that men dared to think, and to write. It was then that those 



28 

bold and home Truths were told in the Pages of Common 
Sense. But the Times have changed, & I call upon you my 
Countrymen to resume your native energies. 

When this Country declared its Independence the Inhabi- 
tants were but ab* two millions & a half, of which nearly a 
Million were slaves. We were then without Ships, without 
Money, without Arms, without ammunition: and yet the whole 
power of England was insufficient to subject us to an uncon- 
ditional Submission to parliamentary decrees. We became 
independent! England was at the commencement of the 
Struggle nearly free from Debt: at the end of the war they were 
involved in a debt of 500,000,000 Sterls. The great men of 
this Country & many others thought it impossible that 
England could long sustain such a burthen of Taxes as were 
requisite to pay the interest of this enormous Debt. But 
England has since that sustained a War against all the powers 
of Christendom & when engaged with all Europe, we, to 
obtain a redress of some grievances, threw our power into the 
Scale against England. She sustained the whole! and put 
down, finally, the power of France, that had forced the rest of 
Europe to succumb. That Nation, England, that seemed 
unappalled by a combination of all the powers of the World, 
pretends now, in perfect peace, to dread the effects that will be 
hkely to result from an effort of the Emperor of Russia to 
humble the pride and power of the Turks, if unopposed by the 
rest of Europe! Has England any thing to fear even if 
Alexander were to make Constantinople his winter's, & St. 
Petersburgh his summer's, residence? His Empire would be 
assailable, in so many points, that he would never be able to 
defend it. He would prepare only for revolutions, for when 
men are placed under Rulers acting only as Vicegerents, they 
are apt to break the Clue of power and wind up a Ball for 
themselves. The East Indies will become independent of 
Great Britain— New Holland will become independent— The 
Cape of good-hope will become independent, but all these 
speaking the English Language will give such advantages to 
our Commerce as to render us in a few years the most potent 
Nation in the World. 

[December, 1816.] 

To the honorable Henry Clay, Chairman of the Assembly for 
promoting the establishment of a free and independ*. Nation 
of Blacks in Africa [draft by Thornton.] 

Sir 

My public Duties did not permit my personal attendance 

at the meeting lately held for this praise-worthy object but I 

have heard with unspeakable satisfaction of the respectability 



29 

of the meeting & of the unanimity of benevolence with which 
this Subject was discussed. It is a Subject that has long 
impressed my mind as one of the most momentous; for it 
involves the happiness of millions of our FellowBeings; and as 
the Government of America was the first to provide against 
the extension of Slavery it is with inexpressible pleasure that 
I view among its most respectable Citizens a zealous desire to 
restore to their Country the Descendents of the Africans who 
have obtained their freedom among us. It has been thought 
by many that they would depart with reluctance for the 
region of their forefathers, but the feelings of human nature 
are the same in all. Let those who prejudge the feelings of the 
Blacks apply the Case to themselves, and ask if they were 
carried into Slavery among the Barbary Powers or other 
savages, and by degrees had gained their freedom, and a 
desire were expressed by the Barbarians that the emancipated 
& their descend*^ should be restored to their original country, 
could there be a hesitation in those to whom such a proposal 
should be made in embracing the offer, especially if they were 
to have lands presented to them, and were to be assisted in 
forming a free Government? It is impossible on this subject, 
if well considered, to offer a doubt. But lest any should judge 
from expressions that may have escaped from contented 
Individuals, I will mention a Fact in favor of this contemplated 
Establishment that cannot fail to make some Impression. 

In the winter of 1786-7 I was travelling in Rhode Island & 
Massachusetts. I found many free Blacks & having been 
engaged in a correspondence with some of the members of the 
Sierra Leone Society of London, among whom were some of my 
Friends I was desirous of knowing what number of free Blacks 
in Mass. & R.I. could be found, desirous of joining in that 
Settlement, I made my wish known to some of the elder 
Blacks who informed me they would call Meetings that they 
might be informed of the contemplated object of such a 
Settlement. They assembled in hundreds, in one of the 
places of worship & in the most orderly and decent manner, 
heard all I had to say. They were delighted with the prospect, 
and in a few Weeks informed me that two thousand were 
willing to accompany me. I made this known to some of the 
Member of the Assembly of Massach^^ who expressed a desire 
of aiding in sending them out of the Country, and I had no 
doubt from the ardour with which the proposal of taking them 
away entirely, was advocated, that the Legislature would 
have furnished then with Ships, with provisions. Tools &c. 
and many of the members promised that every requisite would 
cheerfully be granted. When however I explained to them the 
intention of taking the Blacks to Sierra Leone — then Members 



30 

of the Legislature expressed an unwillingness to send them out 
of the limits of the U.S., & wished a Settlement to be made in 
the most southern part of the back Country between the 
whites & Indians. I informed them that I would never be 
instrumental in placing those men, who were now comparative- 
ly happy & in a state of protection, between the Indians & 
Savages on their Borders, where they would become a prey to 
both ; besides I was confident the Blacks could have no motive 
for wishing such a change ; for if they should prove capable of 
defending themselves ag^* all their Enemies, & should preserve 
their political freedom, could they ever hope to be rec^ as 
representatives in our Assemblies? Could they ever be 
treated with an equality in a country where many of their 
Colour were still held in Slavery? It would be morally 
impossible, but if possible it would be politically dangerous. 
We thus parted, but I had still a hope that the Day would 
arrive when other views of this Subject would open to the 
mind a prospect of such unbounded good to that miserable 
race, that all minor Considerations would vanish. Happily 
the Day has arrived, and I hope that the holy zeal with which 
this Business has commenced may never feel a check ; for most 
fortunately for the cause of humanity, the Cause of self 
Interest has nothing to fear from its advancement. 

I laid before the World in 1804 a Letter containing a plan 
for emancipating the Blacks, a copy of which I take the 
liberty of presenting with this." It is however a Subject 
distinct from the one now under contemplation. This is on 
the mode of establishing them as a free, distinct, & independent 
people. Without attempting to combat the various opinions 
that prevail on this Subject, I think it sufficient to give my 
own but I offer my Sentiments upon this great Subject with 
the utmost deference. The Almighty in that wisdom that 
Man cannot pretend to scan, has destined Africa to be the 
Country of the Blacks. They lived in a state of Nature, 
enjoying the fruits & natural productions of one of the most 
fertile regions of the Earth — till America was discovered. 
The rich mines of Silver & Gold found there induced the 
nations of Europe who possessed themsevles of these inex- 
haustible sources of Wealth after sacrificing miUions of poor 
Indians, to import Africans to work their mines & cultivate 
their lands. These People have been subject to cruelties, at 
which human Nature has long shuddered. Their sufferings 
have made impressions that have roused the activity of many 
benevolent & highly distinguished Characters. The Slave 



"Political Economy founded in Justice and Humanity in a letter to a friend by W. T. 
Washington, 1804. Printed by Samuel Harrison Smith. 



31 

Trade has been abolished, many humane Persons have 
liberated their Slaves, and more would follow them if such 
provision were made for their future destiny as would be likely 
to ensure a prospect of felicity. An Establishment was made 
by the English at Sierra Leone, on one of the finest rivers, & in 
the richest country in Africa. This settlement flourished till 
broken up by the French through a mistaken Jealousy. It is 
revived, & hopes of its advancement entertained. The 
liberal policy of those enlightened Characters who commenced 
that Establishment of free Blacks would doubtless induce 
them cordially to assist in extending it to the free Blacks of 
this Country, & of all others. To join those already in some 
degree established would offer advantages to each; but this 
is only under the supposition that the Settlement is to be 
considered as appertaining to not only a free but compleatly 
independent People : and in no respect whatever to be viewed 
as a Colony. If they should be settled as a Colony, they 
would be restricted by regulations to trade with particular 
nations, & would be subjected to oppressive Duties. They 
might be considered as free but not independent. In an 
establishment of this kind, where provision should be made for 
unborn Millions, every movement should be correspondent. 
Let the Sovereignty of five hundred miles square be purchased 
of the natives of Africa, by discreet and competent agents and 
let this region be recorded by our Government as a free gift 
forever to the people who may settle thereon. The price of 
purchase may perhaps be small in comparison to the immensity 
of the Object & particularly if the surrounding People be 
informed that nothing but good is contemplated. But instead 
of thousands were it to cost us millions it would be unworthy 
of the Consider"^, of a great & magnanimous People, who have 
not hesitated to sacrifice more than a hundred Millions in 
asserting National Principles in defence of private Rights; 
especially when this great Cause is a beneficent retribution for 
long sustained injuries inflicted on the Innocent; & to blot from 
the records of Eternity the highest stigma of humanity. 
After purchasing the Country let it be surveyed in the same 
manner as our own back Countries, & the fee simple only 
be disposed of by degrees that the Settlers may be kept 
compact, and be thereby more capable of defending them- 
selves & their flocks from the incursions of the Savages 
& from the beasts of the wilderness. A form of republican 
Govern*, would be prepared for them — and they ought for a 
while to be protected by a due force. Every Advantage should 
be accorded to them, that an orderly & reasonable people 
could desire. Public Schools & places of worship should be 
estabhshed. Whatever would tend to their advancement in 



32 

this world, & preparation for the next should be solicitously 
fostered — and if with all our Care such a people should be 
produced as might reasonably be expected to arise from such 
preparatory Steps, they would bless the humble Instruments 
of this great work; — for when the surrounding Nations of 
Africa now wrapt in miserable Ignorance should incline to join 
their emancipated Brethren they would find them truly 
emancipated^not from the chains of Slavery alone, but from 
the thraldom of the Mind. They would find them enjoying 
the light of Christianity — and able to instruct their fellow men 
in the precepts of divine wisdom. Thus would Slavery, the 
darkest stain on Christian Professors, be finally rendered 
subservient to the work of heaven & the poor Africans be in a 
manner repaid for the long sufferings of their unhappy 
children. The wilderness would flourish in Arts, Agriculture 
& Science, their Ports would be open to the whole world, the 
Native African would be taught the principles of Christianity 
& be happy; thus millions unnumbered in singing halelujahs 
to our God, would bless the Children of the West! 

W: T: 



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